MovieChat Forums > Masters of Science Fiction (2007) Discussion > Jerry Was A Man - Heinlein

Jerry Was A Man - Heinlein

posted 17 years ago by BillHicks
26 replies | jump to latest

This is the one I have been waiting for. Heinlein is my all-time favorite, but it seems like a weak choice compared to some of the others stories by him they could have made. I would like to see "By His Bootstraps", or maybe "The Long Watch". Still, I will keep an open mind and wait until after I see it to comment.

Well, I've seen it now. Kinda wish I hadn't. But still, I liked the part about... aww, who am I kidding? There was nothing to like about that. If there was just SOMETHING redeeming about it, I wouldn't feel quite so insulted. Really, the whole thing was awful. It saddens me to think that anyone might look at that and think it was Heinlein's fault.

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[–] 17 years ago

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[–] servercat 17 years ago

It was okay... as to be expected they changed a lot of details, including Jerry :\

*shrug* It was nice to see another Heinlein classic into Live action...but like witht he rest, it would have better off if they hadn't.

[–] lmpruitt 17 years ago

It's the one I've been waiting for as well - and they take one of the less scientific of Heinlein's stories - then change it from apes to "anthropoids" and make Jerry completely unlikeable.

*sigh*

You take a brilliant commentary from 1947 about 'what makes a man, a man?' and turn it into a parody.

A sad use of the talents of Malcolm McDowell and Anne Heche.

[–] 17 years ago

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[–] jabell 17 years ago

I liked the show. It was humorous & light in tone, a needed break between the heaviness of the other episodes. The elephant was cute and Anne Heche's hair should have its own show!

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[–] 17 years ago

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[–] rixrex 17 years ago

Yes, a very weak adaptation of Heinlein. When has there been a good adaptation? Some would say Starship Troopers, but I preferred Puppet Masters myself, still neither really get Heinlein.

It's a tough life for those of us who favor Heinlein and HP Lovecraft, too, for if it weren't for Re-Animator and From Beyond, there'd be no really good Lovecraft.

If you get to see Starship Troopers 2, you might think it was from a Lovecraft story, for it's much more a horror film and not at all Heinlein influenced.

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The Eyes of the City are Mine! Mother Pressman / Anguish (1987)

[–] requiem_books 17 years ago

If you're looking for good Heinlein TV or movies, this ain't it. I may be prejudiced because Jerry was a Man isn't one of my favorite stories, but still, they could have followed it a little better. Starship Troopers (the movie) I won't even discuss because it angers me so much. The Puppet Master's was good. But if you want exceptional Heinlein, If you can find it try the FOX animated mini-series of Red Planet.
That was how I always imagined it.

[–] rixrex 17 years ago

Yeah, I think I agree regarding Starship Troopers, my favorite Heinlein story, in that it wasn't up to snuff as far being in the same vein as the Heinlein novel. I do think that the basic milieu, the setting and design of the bugs and the effects were what the novel deserved, but the whole tone of satire was a mistake.

That is why I prefer Troopers 2, Hero of the Federation, over the original. It does not make the story into satire, and does not take a political stand that pokes fun at the militia as did the first film. In fact it is much truer to Heinlein's original vision, and it plays very well as an eerie sci-fi/horror film. It also has better overall performances from the actors. It has been faulted for recycling some of the bug effects from the first, but that's only a small part of the whole film.

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The Eyes of the City are Mine! Mother Pressman / Anguish (1987)

[–] donofthedial 17 years ago

OT - IIRC, some of the old Night Gallery's had some fairly decent HPL adaptations. I have not seen the m in ages and I saw them all before I ever read any Lovecraft, but they were OK. "Rats in the Walls" was one of them. And the one about the thing in the basement and the one which ends with the guy seeing a 'shadow out of space' in Boston. (Sorry, but blanking horribly on titles this early in the morning.)

If there are any decent HLP discussions groups, please elt me know. Thanks.

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"If you ever work in an office, look out for the fat cows."

[–] rixrex 17 years ago

Right, they did have adaptations that were decent.

Of course Lovecraft was in public domain, so that's why they had several.

Still, he's tough to do in features. Some of the most Lovecraftian-styled feature films are not based on his stuff too, eg, Curse of the Demon.

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The Eyes of the City are Mine! Mother Pressman / Anguish (1987)

[–] donofthedial 17 years ago

Lovecraft does not open up well in features.

His tales are very tight and very insular and might as well be taking place in another dimension.

And I think b/c they are so nightmarishly weird, the spell is easily broken in a long feature.

That entire school of 'weird tales' is problematic, perhaps.

I don't think that I have seen COTDemon in my adulthood.

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"If you ever work in an office, look out for the fat cows."

[–] rixrex 17 years ago

You ought to see it again, then. Though the story is by MR James, the whole setting and atmosphere is akin to reading a Lovecraft tale on a spooky, windy October night.

There are Lovecraft novellas that I think could be good features with a talented hand doing the direction, and still retain the eeriness of the writing. I don't think there are many, but there are some.

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The Eyes of the City are Mine! Mother Pressman / Anguish (1987)

[–] donofthedial 17 years ago

I think I read just about all the Lovecraft and the only ones I did not like were the very poetic dream ones; they were good, but not my cup.

Dont you think the novellas (titles, please, if you would) would be even harder to sustain a mood with?

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"If you ever work in an office, look out for the fat cows."

[–] mindset21 17 years ago

I'm hate to admit it, but Lovecraft is not a very good author. He's simply Poe-worship, riddled with $5 words and cheap, cardboard characters. Some of the imagination within his stories, can at times be good. But his basic stories, in any sort of traditional sense, are not very good.

Sorry.

[–] rixrex 17 years ago

I don't agree. I've found that I can read and enjoy Lovecraft more than Poe. The terrifying imagery that Lovecraft created has always been able to give me chills, and Poe never has.

I agree that he is definitely not a traditional writer, but I never found his main characters to be cheap and one-dimensional, and since I know the $5 words, they're nothing more than descriptive words to me.

Where he has problems in my mind is in the repetition of the mythical world he has created, the Cthulu Mythos. I always felt that by setting up this otherworld, to the point of making rules and a heirarchy, limited his story-telling in that he had to follow a certain fictional dogma as the tales develop.

This type of setup sometimes leads to the thought that you've read it before even though it's a work of his that you have not read. It also gives you the ability to foretell the events of the story, and be surprisingly correct the more works in the "mythos" series that you read. In that way, his writing is faulty.

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The Eyes of the City are Mine! Mother Pressman / Anguish (1987)

[–] danzig138-668-939218 8 years ago

When has there been a good adaptation?

The better question is when has there been a good Heinlein? The answer: There hasn't.

The adaptations of his works tend to suck because they're adaptations of poor works.

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WORDS MEAN THINGS! Also, before you come to bitch about a plot hole, rewatch the show/movie.

[–] mrcab 17 years ago

just throwing in my two cents here...

I think the shows so far have been bad science fiction, executed poorly -by the film makers.

[–] jmbwithcats 17 years ago

Actually with inflation and the times, your two cents isn't even countable in the 20th century.

Anne Heche was terrific but she seemed to try too hard to read her lines like Katherine Hepburn, I swear.

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[–] mrcab 17 years ago

so what's your point?

[–] jmbwithcats 17 years ago

This is a discussion / message board not a point board.

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I feel like an angel baby swaddled in a cocoon of cloud candy.

[–] mrcab 17 years ago

I could say the same to you: "this is a discussion/message board not comedy night at the improv"

[–] jmbwithcats 17 years ago

Except you're the one demanding it be one way.

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I feel like an angel baby swaddled in a cocoon of cloud candy.

[–] mrcab 17 years ago

I'm not demanding, I'm just asking

[–] bcairns6 16 years ago

To paraphrase from Mr. Heinlein. "His cemetary-mates will know him as 'Revolving Robert'". This poorly acted, poorly adapted and poorly directed version of one of his stories will certainly set back mainline acceptance of Science Fiction by at least fifty years (as already noted in this thread).

[–] huh_oh_i_c 16 years ago

Man, that phrase about Einstein from Have Spacesuit will travel stuck in my mind a lot! "His neigbour in the cemetary will know him as 'Whirligig Albert'"

Twas my only LOL moment with that novel, which btw, had very a early version of his famed May-December-romances ...

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